eat \eat\, v. i.
   1. to take food; to feed; especially, to take solid, in
      distinction from liquid, food; to board.
      1913 webster

            he did eat continually at the king's table. --2 sam.
                                                  ix. 13.
      1913 webster

   2. to taste or relish; as, it eats like tender beef.
      1913 webster

   3. to make one's way slowly.
      1913 webster

   to eat, to eat in or to eat into, to make way by
      corrosion; to gnaw; to consume. "a sword laid by, which
      eats into itself." --byron.

   to eat to windward naut., to keep the course when
      closehauled with but little steering; -- said of a vessel.
      1913 webster
see also:
to eat to eat in to eat into to eat to windward